Don’t Stop Looking

I’m doing some in-depth reading and studying up on my animal behavior and dog training knowledge, because it’s always something I’ve wanted to have more awareness of and be able to put into practice. I’m only halfway through my first book – “Inside of A Dog” by Alexandra Horowitz, but I’ve made note of some of the items I’ve been learning about, which I may put into a post all their own. For now, I just came across this very interesting paragraph that talks about how dogs never lose their sense of observation, while naturally-awed children grow up into adults who fall out of the habit of noticing things in general.

Dogs don’t stop looking — at the gimpy walk, at a rush of leaves tumbling down the sidewalk, at our faces. The urban dog may be bereft of natural sights, but he is rich in the odd: the drunken man swerving through a crowd, the shouting sidewalk preacher, the lame and destitute. All get long stares from the dogs who pass them. What makes dogs good anthropologists is that they are so attuned to humans: they notice what is typical, and what is different. And, just as crucially, they don’t become inured to us, as we do — nor do they grow up to be us.

Leela – a one-eyed great dane I’m honored to call my niece, and who has amazing surveillance skills